Catherine Lynch reports from the annual meeting of Europe’s human rights activists in Vienna and their discussions on tackling the scourge of hate crime throughout the EU
IN Late April, hundreds of human rights activists met in Vienna for the annual meeting of the EU Fundamental Rights Platform, bringing to Europe’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) what was described as “an unfiltered voice from the edges of society”.
Filtered through discussions on an EU ‘equality directive’ that could provide protection against discrimination to a number of equality groups, and suggestions of supports for victims of hate crime, one conclusion is clear: we need solidarity. This does not mean one voice, but it does mean that more often than not, those who keep getting the short end of the stick must stand together. Many Metro Éireann readers and contributors have voiced their concerns around racist incidents and hate crime in the past, and so I am pleased to be able to share some of the discussion with you.
A large part of the agenda concerned supports for victims of hate crime. An expert panel set the scene, drawing examples of good practice from recording crimes to counselling and legal supports.
Where they exist, most of the supports are for victims who experience violence directly. This, I argued, is a limited view of who the victims of hate crimes are. Hate crime is not a crime like any other crime. We know that hate crime has a deeper impact on the individual and affects the wider community. Victims of hate crime are not only those directly targeted but also the people who live in fear of hate crime, who adjust their behaviour and hide their identities because of it. In light of this broader definition, then, we must think of supports beyond counselling and be clear that legislation itself is a key support – in its existence, its effectiveness and its communication.
Enacting hate crime legislation, implementing it and communicating it to the public sends the message that racism and other forms of hate are not tolerated. It also sends a signal of support to minorities.
There is a commonality of experience across groups experiencing hate crime, be they ethnic minorities, religious minorities, the LGBT community or people with disabilities. But we must remember that there is not a common protection for different groups against hate crime across the EU. We must not become comfortable that just because our group is protected by legislation, or if there is legislation in your member state, things are okay.
Legal challenges
The discussion on an equality directive – more officially, the Horizontal Anti-Discrimin-ation Directive – brought to the fore the very real challenges in ensuring legal capacity to actually provide protections to multiple groups.
The draft directive aims to ensure equal treatment between people irrespective of religion or belief, age, disability or sexual orientation, outside of the labour market. This is similar to the ‘race directive’ in place since 2000.
However, the draft legislation has gone nowhere for years, a result of differences between civil society organisations as well as governments. We must work together to ensure our sometimes different views of how we can achieve equality, or this notion of competing rights, do not leave us open to a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy that could dismantle the progress we have made.
Equal rights for all
Holding the EU presidency, the representative from the Ireland’s Department of Justice offered reassurance to the sceptical that while there may be difficulties with the draft legal text, the core of the equality directive should not be problematic. His allusion seems to have been to a tangible fear that such a legal instrument would deliver only disaster. He argued his point based on experience and research gathered from the Irish experience where he says a multiple-ground approach is in place for well over a decade. The experience has been positive and measured and chaos never ensued, he related.
Unfortunately, it is clear that while the Irish EU presidency had put some significant effort into progressing the directive, it is unlikely to come to fruition in this term, which comes to an end next month.
Meanwhile, it is time that the right to movement in the EU – also an inequality for migrants, of course – comes with a guarantee to similar protections against discrimination or hate crime. The Irish EU presidency still has an opportunity to commit the EU to actions on hate crime and to progress the equality directive. Both for reasons of solidarity and self-interest, and we must hold our EU leaders and our Irish Government to account.
Moreover, while it is fine to bring in specific provisions for certain groups, we cannot have this as our end goal. Though the road may be long, and we may accept that we build with blocks rather than one seamless structure, our goal must be the same: equal rights and protection for all.
- Further information on the meeting and FRA research on hate crime can be found at fra.europa.eu
Catherine Lynch is the director of the Irish Network Against Racism.
